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"Bodies?" Grillo asked in her ear

She ignored hie tendril fro as her hand, connected by bulbous sections like bony knuckles The htly opaque, and coated with a fine dust, or moisture perhaps She --the spike had thousands--no,out of it, each thin as a hair and no longer than a grain of sand

"What is it?" David asked

Sam shook her head "Beats me," she replied She stepped around it only to be poked in her stoh her thick co, thin crystal branches protruding through the cloud

Looking up, and around her, Sae of some kind of massive lattice A complex, chaotic systements The tips of the branches were sharp as needles

Sa a section of it tight and away froh Then she waddled a few steps over to a spike protruding at that height and watched in horror as it poked through the cloth like a knife through warm butter

"Guys," she said, "back away Very slowly"

Faisal turned first "God help us," hehirown over and around them Even as she watched, she could see new knuckle-like tips blooinning to stretch

"What’s going on?" Grillo asked, urgency in his usually caled tentacles She saw him drop to a belly crawl before he vanished coo!" Saetting lower to the ground with each passing second

"I’m out!" she heard Faisal yell from somewhere nearby

The opportunity to flee passed just seconds later Saht they would be skewered on a thousand of the knifelike points, but the growth see them inside a bulbous cavity, surrounded on all sides

"We’re trapped," David said Now a hint of fear shadowed his gruff voice If any one of those spikes poked his environment suit, he’d be infected and the headaches would start After that, if he didn’t get back to the aura in time to snuff out the early part of the infection, he’d die Or worse

Saain, took the clip out, and ensured no round was in the chamber Then she flipped it around to hold it like a club

"Samantha, I need an update," Grillo hissed in her ear

"There’s sorowth here I think it’s … alien"

David nodded at her with grim determination He’d converted his own rifle into a club as well, and stood ready to start hacking

"We’re co to try to s around, she realized that every direction looked the same She couldn’t remember the path Faisal had taken "Which way?" she asked David

He glanced around, then dropped to a knee to study the ground "I think he went that way," theThere were so round, Sam didn’t think he could really tell

"Faisal?!" she called out

"Here," his voice caht it stronger in one direction Better than nothing, she decided, and turned to face that way

She swung the butt of her rifle with all her strength

The gun swept through the crystal branches with a whoosh The bony arun like dead-wood They swayed fro their length Not a single one broke or even showed signs of da back and forth, the branches settled back into their original positions and continued to grow Saroith time-lapse quickness

Soon she and David were coe structure, needle-sharp tips pointing at theround David crawled to the center of the cavity and sat there, glancing frantically around hi for the thorn that would puncture his suit and doorowth stopped, as if it wanted them trapped inside

"We’re stuck in here," Samantha said for Grillo’s benefit "Some kind of plant, I don’t know It’s surrounded us and the tips will cut David’s suit if he renade," Grillo said

Samantha filed that advice She’d not yet reached that level of desperation Kneeling, she wiped her right hand across her shirt to dry it, then reached out and tapped the side of one branch with her index finger, as gently as she could The semi-transparent stick, which snaked off into the cloud in a line roughly parallel to the ground, swayed slightly froer and saw a dab of moisture there Water? Soled

Leaning in close, she noticed fine wisps of th of the branch "I think this thing is creating the cloud," she said, to no one in particular

"Grenade?" David asked

"Hold on," Samantha said "If it shatters and falls on us, you’ll be fucked"

He grunted "Good point"

Slinging her weapon again, Sam held out her hands to either side of the closest branch, twitched her fingers, then gripped it below a knuckle a half th

Pinpricks of pain forced her to yank her hands away "Son of a da her palms A hundred little dots of blood for Christ that hurts" She unzipped her coripped the white tank top beneath to put pressure on the wounds Her hands began to feel cold and nuripped her shirt tighter, biting her tongue against the pain, until the sensation subsided

Sah the speaker on his suit

"Sod this," he growled "Grenade"